WELLINGTON ITEMS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5734, 30 November 1896, Page 4

WELLINGTON ITEMS.

[From Our Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, Nov. 29. The election and the exhibition take up all our time and attention just now. The latter, strange to say, keeps the ear and eye of the public in spite of the disturbing effect of the former. We have, in fact, demonstrated that there is room enough in our minds for two sensations at a time. The exhibition is a remarkably interesting show, far more so to the people of this and neighbouring districts than it would be to the people of your city and neighbourhood, the reason, of course, being that your people are more accustomed to such things. They are always taking the industrial census, aiiu/ we kut follow in. their, wake. It is a good wake, as we are admitting more every* day. The management is alive to the fact that the solid advantages of instructive exhibitions of industry require to be supplemented by allocations of amusement of various kinds. We have, therefore, " bykes," music, and Mr Seager with his slides and his limelights ; and we have are-freshmenfc-room and tea kiosks and pictures galore. By the way, it is a sore point with iis that your Art Society did not loan its pictures as the Dunedin Society did. The Dunedin loan pictures are distinctly good. Your people are not out in the cold by themselves in this matter, for Auckland refused just as they did. However, the money comes rolling in with the people. The glow of a remarkably good electric installation is over them at night; the exhibition hums, and so does the management. To see Mr Brown, the president, and his fellow-com-mitteemen, and Mr Meadow, the urbane manager, and Mr Morpeth, the careful secretary, and Mr Bannister, the energetic organiser of outdoor sports, is to get glimpses of real happiness rare in this sublunary sphere. The election appeals to the graver side. Up to the nominations we had the usual uncertainties, and since the nominations the uncertainties have for the moment! unusually deepened. Before the nominations we had nine candidates; now we have ten. It came about in this way. One (Mr Duncan) retired, probably feeling that he would be .£lO better off, and two came in unexpectedly. One was Mr A. Warburton.. brother of the Public Trustee, and the other unexpected candidate was no less a person than the formally and painfully retired Mr Duthie. A rumour suddenly got abroad that the Premier was coining out, and thereupon Mr Duthie rushed into the fray proclaiming the fact that nobody else, in his opinion, was fit to face the big Liberal champion, but having proclaimed this Mr Duthie finds himself beating the air. It is not altogether wonderful under the circumstances that his friends are declaring in no uncertain amount of ostentation that he is not at all bound to go on. The Premier to-morrow night -will, I understand, speak here, and will be flanked by the Liberal ticket, i.e., Messrs Hutcheson, C. Wilson and George Fisher. He is evidently alive to the fact that if the Liberals 'Concentrate in the ticket they will win. The concentration just now is the doubtful thing, not so doubtful as it was a while ago, but doubtful distinctly. Nevertheless, so fax as present appearances go, if there is no concentration, the effects of dispersion promise to be curious, but of this more anon. In the matter of the prospectus of the half-million issuejunder the Aid to Public works loan, there is a good deal of satisfaction at the appeal to the local market. A curious idea got about that though the terms announced are par, tenders at 98 would be considered. That is impossible in face of the fact that the committee is to be an independent committee, bounfi' to carry out the advertised terms, whicjb, are their charter, in fact. Another idea which gained ground was that the whole half-million was anticipated long ago, and that the issue will only lead to a change of debentures. I have reason for stating that there is nothing* in the idea at all. The Temple. — The present proprietors of the building lately known as the Temple of Truth have altered the name to " The Temple," and are also having obliterated all the mementoes of Mr A. B. Worthington with which the structure was adorned.